Die Kirche

We have been averaging about 4 churches a day in the cities that we have been visiting and today we went to one of our favorite ones. We went to a church service of our church. We were a little bit late because we ran across town to the Olympic stadium of the 1972 Summer Olympics.

The only seat was the second row. We sat next to a nice lady who knew a bit of English and helped entertain Caroline with very cool German coloring books. We didn't understand one word, but sure could feel the message of their talks.

I had hoped that I would have served my mission for my church in Germany or Austria and spent the first 6 months of my mission in North Dakota thinking I was in the wrong place (only later in the last month of my mission to meet the missionary who had taught my father 15 years earlier) so being here was just pretty awesome for me. We didn't stay the last two hours even though we had to drag out Annie Kate who wanted to stay. this was the first chruch we had to drag her out of all week.

It was fun taking Annie Kate to the Olympic Pool after her swimming extravaganza this summer. The 1972 Olympics were memorable for many reasons. It was the year of the Munich Massacre, which I learned more about today. It was also the year Mark Spitz set a world record and won 7 Gold medals, so to see this pool was pretty awesome to see.

We have had a hard time finding milk outside of the commissary. I guess it is ultra pasteurized here and so it does not need to be refrigerated, so it is warm. It looks like white water and my girls won't drink it. McDonalds has saved the day with their milk. Today we got the coolest straw with it. It is a plastic straw that has chocolate bead like things trapped in the top and the bottom. The milk filters through and then becomes chocolate milk. This way they carry white milk and then you only use the straw if you want chocolate milk. It is awesome. My girls loved it. I really need to stop by one before we leave and see if I can buy a bunch. They had a out door McCafe that had beautiful flower boxes and wrought iron tables and chairs. Europe can even make McDonald's look chic.

Here I am in the Markplatz in Munich today. I am realizing I have about 6 photos documenting that I have made this trip and need to work on that for the next week. And all the photos are an arms length away (thanks Lelly for making Self Portraits cool)

Jeff planning our next move thanks to Rick Steve's

It was a tiring day and I appreciated Michelle's comments about the fact my kids are doing a ton and that might explain the "quick to cry" behavior. Jeff and I even got pretty tired today and looked forward to relaxing back at the home front. All the stores were closed today, which squashed my dream of buying the $30 Birkenstocks in the store window.

Off to Switzerland tomorrow to an amazing part of the world that has no cars. We have to leave our car behind at the base of the mountains and take the train to the hotel. I think Jeff will find his heaven on earth there, as this will week will mark our 13th wedding anniversary, it will be a great place to be... even with the little ones along.

Munich photos, at least as many as I could upload

the hills were alive today

our day in Salzburg, Austria

Sally Jane at the end of the day in the gardens featured in the Sound of Music

There is no way I can in 5 minutes, sum up one of the greatest days we have had so far. We didn't make it to Salzburg until mid afternoon, because we had to do a little payback time. Which means we do something the kids want to do so that they will get in the car and drive for 2 hours to go to Salzburg.

the pool here at the resort is great. It is only 2 feet deep for the entire pool. The pool is inside but the hot tub is outside. The hot tub is bigger than our entire basement. It is outside and surrounded by the Alps and is gorgeous. So we ate breakfast by the pool, made our kid deposits and then headed out of town.

There is a military training next to the resort (the resort is a military resort and is employed by American college age kids, who are so helpful and nice) so they have a commissary, PX and bank. It has made this trip so smooth being able to pay so little for food, get money without any ATM fees, and buy all the things we forgot to pack. they have over 40 variety's of my favorite Ritter candy bar for $.67.I wonder how to explain to Jeff I plan on coming home with 20 of them..... (everything at the commissary is in American dollars, which makes it double cheap.)

annie kate at the Hohen Salzburg Fortress, over looking the entire city
so we made it to Salzburg mid afternoon and the weather was just beautiful. What is so funny about our non pretrip planning is that when we went to Italy last minute we were there for the cities last day of their summer festival. So we got to enjoy the Italian street market with antiques and food. Today in Salzburg started their week long festival. Lucky us! We found out that the concert we saw overhead the city had tickets sold out 5 years in advance.

We took a carriage ride through the city. It seemed the only way we would be able to see the city as our kids were tired and cranky. I have not seen any other kids cry and have breakdowns, I wonder if that is an American kid thing. Everyone else seems so well behaved.

This city has so much to offer in such a small little space.

We each got a silhouette cut of our profile from a vendor off the street, for only 4 euros. Jeff's looks amazing and exactly like him. I can't wait to take a picture of it and share it.




Jeff may have planned that the shops were closing right after we got there, so much to see so little time. This wooden carving is just like the one I wanted to buy in Oberamergau for 138 euros, here it was only 48. I still didn't buy it but enjoyed seeing it again and liked having a photo.

this little shop was a treat to walk through it was full of thousands of hand painted eggs. ideas were running through my head. The Halloween tree of eggs was so awesome.

So were are literally running out the door to Munich for the day and hoping the short hour drive will recharge us. We are getting really tired, but just can't seem to sit still for even a day. We decided to check out early tomorrow and go to Switzerland for three days and are still toying around the idea of France... are we crazy?

photos of Salzburg

discovering gummy bears

traveling with the little ones

I feel like I have been writing blog posts in my head all day every day. I think about what I want to remember, how I felt, the smells (as we drove into Italy the smell of cows rushed in our car like my kids on the way to the pool) the people, what they looked like. I have to get up early to download my photos and just don't have enough time to write it all down, I have so many things I could write about.

But this morning as we get ready to head to Salzburg for an all day outing, I just have to take a minute to write about how it has been being here with the kids.

It is amazing and yet our kids are just the same as they were at home, happy, impatient, hungry 15 minutes after dinner, cranky, excited, sassy, laugh a lot, cry a lot - so if they are going to do that anyway, why not do it some where new, different and exciting.

We knew from the get go, they would not have the ability to totally appreciate where we are, what we are seeing or how lucky we all are to be here. So getting that emotion out of the way it lowers our expectations and dialogue of constantly saying, "do you have any idea where we are?"

When we were in Italy, Jeff pulled Annie Kate aside and said, "Annie this church was here before Chistopher Columbus even thought about going to discover America" She looked at him with big eyes and then said, "ok now can we get some of that ice cream?" (the best gelato I have ever had by the way and it was only 1euro) So, we laugh and then hope that someday in school or life the experience of this trip will kick in.

Eating last night in the Markplatz in Garmish and watching the girls each say "Danke" to the waiter as he brought his food, could have been worth the trip right there. Or watching Annie Kate get the courage to count her Euro's and go up to a food stand in Italy and order another marmalade pastry and then say Grazi, all by herself.

This really has been an amazing trip and the way I feel right now is that I would save every spare penny I have all year to travel with my kids each summer. I now want to keep my old couch and kitchen table if it meant I could come back here again.

The above photo is of Sally Jane with a hand full of gummy bears. She even slept with three all mushed in her hand the other night. My kids have eaten them everyday. We got Caroline a Happy Meal on our way out of Austria and into Italy and they came with two little McGummie bags and she was thrilled. I hope now when she sees gummy bears, she will remember she discovered them here.

I don't expect them to remember the name and year each church was built, or the names of the towns we have visited, but they will remember we were here, be it from photos or their own memory and that they saw a different way of life.

Yesterday we rented bikes for the day and rode along the river in town and had lunch in a large farming field. Life seems slower here, no one seems to be in a hurry to get here. All the houses are the same it is just the flowers in the window boxes that are different. It seems simpler here. It seems like more people are on bikes than in cars. And if I had a dollar for every woman over 60 that I have seen on a bike, in Germany, Austria and Italy, my trip would have been paid for three times over. I love seeing this women on their bikes with a wicker basket full of groceries.

It has truly been a blessing to be here and see all this part of the country has to offer. It has also been a blessing to see it through my children's eyes. Now that the fear of traveling with the crazy little girls is diminishing we are already talking of where we would take them next.

SPT - too darn hot, what are you doing to stay cool this summer?

ok i just have to say it is Friday but I am posting this as if it is Tuesday. I didn't even know what the SPT was until this morning and you are not going to believe what I did on Tuesday that is so perfect for the challenge!

I was on top of the Zugspitze. The tallest peak in Germany (almost 3000 meters about 10,000 feet) ... and it was snowing! at the last minute before we went down, I said to myself take a photo and then on Friday check to see if it fits with the SPT. This must be SPT fate.

It was an amazing day. it was our first day in the country not traveling to get to our hotel. We had planned to just hang around the pool and catch up on some sleep, but that only lasted about 1 hour and we couldn't sit still. (our friend David J. would be proud of us)

We took a tram to the top. it was raining and windy so the tram did a little swinging. For me it was better that the view was a little clouded so I would not freak out. As for Jeff he would have loved to see how high he was.

The window to the tram was open, in 5 minutes we went from totally clear, little bit of rain, lots of rain, ice, then through a cloud, then snow coming in. The little girls were loving it.

At the top we had some awesome white hot chocolate, a yummy ritter candy bar, pretzels with the best mustard I have ever had.

There was a post office at the top where you could send mail that had a special post mark from the Zugspitze. We sent only three as they were the only address's I could remember on the spot. one to Annie Kate's best friend, Carson. She wrote, How are the mudballs doing? (they are stocking up on mudballs for their new fort in case anyone attacks) then I sent one to my parents and one to my brother Adam in care of my parents because I didn't know his address. I thought of my brother Adam all day - he would have loved this place and I hope some day gets to come here and ski down! (he is going up mt. Rainer this month)

We took the train down the mountain and the views were just amazing. This was supposed to be our "not leave the resort day and just sleep" we just could not sit still and had to start exploring!

photos to come to this gallery

Landstuhl Air Force base

Guten Tag -we made it!

with some great beginner's luck, I am sure we made it out on the first flight on Sunday, which left at 9:00 pm. We flew on a C5, you can see the plane through the windows. We were not allowed to take any photos once we left the terminal, so this was the best I could do. There was 75 seats up above all the cargo below. Only 4 windows, not a lot of air and it was really loud. I didn't mind it being loud because then no one could hear my kids screaming. Seriously it was that loud. Annie Kate slept on the floor most of the flight which worked out great. If I could have taken photos you would have seen Annie Kate resting her head next to the plane's large emergency rope, the boxed dinner for $3.25 - which ended up being the total cost x 5 for the trip, the wall of the plane that had circled where a missing screw as with an arrow saying missing, a photo of the emergency door falling open in the row behind the girls minutes before we took off and all the wind blowing in, the honor guard we drove by on the buses practicing marching to pick up the fallen soldiers caskets on a plane getting ready to land, (it gave me such a sense of respect for being able to fly on these planes) the air man showing us how to put on this metal bag on our head if the plane catches fire, the little bag of wipes that lay in the bathroom sink because the water didn't run, or photos of walking up the huge stairway to get in this gigantic plane - it was really amazing.

When we landed Sally Jane looked at me and said (keep in mind it was 5:00 am our time) "see Castles" we had been telling the girls that we are going to fly on a big plane and then see Cinderella's Castle. It was so sweet.

We met a great family on the flight stationed in Germany, that drove Jeff to get the car we rented on base. The girls and I hung out at the USO on leather couches in a room full of movies and toys. Having the military surrounding has sure made this trip an easy transition into a new country.

After we got the car with the most awesome GPS system, it tells us when the traffic is going to get bad, we went to the commissary to get basic supplies, like German chocolate, water and diapers and some of the best grapes I have ever had. There is also a bank on base where we changed our money. $240 Us dollars got us $169 Euro - YIKES!

We took video of Jeff driving on the Autobahn in our Gia Ford edition (the cool VW did not have GPS, so we had to take it back, so we are over driving a Ford in Europe) and had a nice 4 hour that was really 6 hour drive to the resort at the base of the Alps - oh my am I really saying this. I feel like I am in a movie! Everything looks so dreamy and just like I had imagined it would look.

I can't stop taking photos, the signs, the cars, the packaging on the food -

to see more photos with better documentation you can see them here.

(again love you smugmug and I am not just saying that because you gave me a FREE year for my recent SPT... thanks)

OK, our journey begins!

and how funny all of my blogger is in German, I am kicking myself for not paying better attention in high school.

our adventure begins. we will start today trying to get on a flight to go to Germany. I told Jeff that if we still have not got on a flight by Tuesday we are just going to go to the beach.
I don't want to jinx it - but never in my life did I ever think I would travel over seas or ever need a passport. I kind of feel like I am in someone elses life. I am excited but even after all our packing and preparation, it just doesn't seem real, that we are really going to be there.
Off we go, I hope to post pictures by the middle of the week...

Auf Wiedersehen

just keep swimming, just keep swimming

Dory from Finding Nemo

Well, what a day! Annie Kate had to be at the pool by 6:20 am to warm up for the Divisional meet. Luckily it was at our home pool down the street.
She was set up to swim Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly.

look how dirty my door is

She woke up this morning and saw that the Kingfish Fairy had stopped by her home to give her the Divisional Flag. (these High School coaches are so cute and do such fun things for the kids)

I think she felt the intensity of the day. There were only 2 kids from each age group there so it felt small compared to the normal 50 kids there cheering.

She did well in Backstroke and was able to "knock a second off her time" (it was funny hearing her say that to one of the boys on her team) She came in 8th.

Breast Stroke if by far her best stroke and we knew she had a chance to win this. Jeff and I were nervous wrecks. Our hearts were pounding. She was in the first heat of two. The electronic start went off and she almost froze and waited a second to dive in. You could tell she was thrown off a bit. Then she started swimming FREESTYLE. An instant disqualification. She then stopped in the pool, and then started swimming breast stroke. I gasped and started to cry. Jeff and I looked at each other - oh no this is not good. She ended up pushing it so hard to win the heat. We ran to the end of the pool thinking we would find a sad little fish. She jumped out of the pool. She said, "Did you see me I totally messed up and swam freestyle, but swam my best time ever" She had no idea she was going to be disqualified. It only took a few minutes when she realized she had the DQ. It was amazing she didn't even care. She ended up getting the second best time and had she not had a bad start or stopped in the pool she could have won first. Jeff and I were sick. We felt so bad for her. Then we realized she was fine - so why were we such a wreck. This anxiety only built up for the next race - Butterfly.

I now was so nervous that she again would forget her stroke. This was only her second time swimming this event an "A" meet for the season, but she was seeded 2nd in the division. We were afraid her inexperience would get the best of her. She swam like a champ. It was easy to see who had first place but 2nd and 3rd was too close to call. It was either her or the other girl on her team. We waited for the score - and 2nd place it was. We were thrilled and I think she was surprised.

The great thing about swimming is the whole time it feels so individual but at the end of the day it is a team sport. Before they announced the winner the team knew there was a 2 point difference between 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Jeff had figured that if Annie Kate had won breast stroke she would have taken 10 points for the team. They dragged it to the end then announced First place was to the KINGFISH. WE WON! I had gone home to get the little girls but Jeff said everyone was going crazy! Annie Kate had the day and season of her life. She made it to divisionals, she learned about being disappointed, trying her hardest and even felt the taste of victory. We feel so blessed to have had this experience this summer and can't wait to see what she can do next year.During half time they did this awesome tradition for all the seniors. They each get a handmade crown and bath robe and do the ceremonial walk around the pool. It made me never want to move from this neighborhood.

Tonight was the awards banquet where they gave away the trophy's for the year and got to watch the end of the year slide show. The maker of the summer DVD does this for a living so it was INCREDIBLE.
We had no idea how the awards worked which added to a fun surprise for the night. Turns our Annie Kate was the 2nd top scorer for the season in her age group and got a special trophy for that. She was also given the most improved in her age group and received a special plaque.
Her coach this year was awesome and with their undefeated season the team is begging for him to come back next year. It was his first year as the coach and we are all thrilled he will be back!

European Expectations

So, this is so me. Last minute getting ready for something big. We are getting ready for our family trip. Barb, asked me what prompted this trip and how we chose to go to Germany. Money! We are flying Space Available - Military travel so it is about $15.01 round trip. (it is going to be a crazy adventure for sure - get ready for some crazy posts of us sleeping in the airport) We just got our car rental for 2 weeks through the military base and it was so cheap!
We really are not big planners when it comes to trips that just involve us - we are more show up and check out the scene type of people. I did buy a German translation book at the book store yesterday - dang I wish I would have paid attention more to my 3 years of German in high school and college!
What I am the most excited about is just seeing something different than I know. To teach my children and myself there are other ways of living and doing things. While my husband wants to visit the museums and castles, I more want to walk up and down streets with vegetables and flowers for sale, see great toys shops, eat chocolate and see inside a grocery store. I am very excited about going to church. How fun to got to our church website and punch in the country and city and find where to go. I hope it works out as I think this will be memorable for the kids.
But all and all my expectations are quite low. I have taught myself to not get too excited about things and then be disappointed in the end that it was not all that my little mind dreamed up.
So here is a list of my European Expectations, so I can come back and check them off to see how the trip went.

1. get there (this is huge since you just show up at the airport the day of to hopefully get on a plane)
2. eat some great food - my thoughts are chocolate or something with sauerkraut and sausage.
3. not lose my kids. my friend went to Spain last year and her husband wrote their phone number on their kids arms real big with a black sharpie.
   
4. bring an item home that will remind us of our trip. i will be on the hunt for a kid friendly nativity - I am a gift shopaholic so I will be exercising some serious self control (Chanel your comment was timely)
5. sing the hills are alive on the Sound of Music tour with my girls dancing (thanks for the great idea)
   
6. and last - return home. (again showing up at the airport hoping to get on a plane)
   

Really that is about it. Pretty easy to please'

Today I need to get bribery items for the long plane ride and potential sleeping on the airport floor, finish packing, get tickets to the above castle (I think Caroline thinks we are going to actually see Sleeping Beauty)
Feel free to share any travel ideas that have worked for you and your family

swimming sister power

We are trying to use up as much swim time before we go on our trip. The pool will only be open for a few more weeks after our vacations this year. We were the ONLY ones in the pool tonight. I had take a little video for Grammy and Mimi of Caroline Swimming. This little girl is so funny, I could not stop laughing. She is so determined.

trying to be cool like Anne.

One thing I do not enjoy doing is shopping and especially shopping for clothes. My dream would be to wear khaki skirt or pants and crisp white t-shirts every day.
The not enjoying shopping may make some people gasp and it may not make sense, so I will explain. What I do enjoy doing is hunting. Garage Sales, thrift stores, 90 % off at Target that is hunting not shopping.
Because I feel like I have no style as far as how I dress and I can't stand spending a lot of money on clothes. I enjoy quality. Something that will last - maybe forever. Things like that cost money. I don't like trends. I loved the 80's but wish I could have gone to high school in the 60's with those great clothes - Mary Jane's and cardigans. I am rambling.

On Monday night I had a total treat. I met a blogger. Anne. I have quite a fear of meeting any bloggers - a total insecurity of mine now exposed. I have always thought she had style on her blog but when I met her it was confirmed - she is hip - even down to the very cool shoes she was wearing. Anne is not only totally hip, but totally tall. She is very generous and gave me a bag full of goodies. She has the most soothing voice. I can't explain it but I thought it the first time I talked to her, you just want her to keep talking.
We did not take a photo (Jill will be disappointed in us for sure) we did some research at the library and went to dinner. I still am nervous she walked away thinking - "What a freak" but trust her when she said I wasn't.
So in honor of Anne and trying to be hip like her, I bought myself a new pair of shoes tonight. The fact that the were $12.00 from Payless and will fall apart in a month, is beside the point. At least next time I go to the Argentine Embassy i won't wear my white Birkenstocks.

Newsies

This is hands down one of the best movies ever! The soundtrack is awesome. After watching it today with Annie Kate a few songs have made it on my running mix. It is directed by the director of High School Musical (counting down the day until August 17th when the second one comes out, don't even get me started about my fondness for Zack Efron. I just don't understand why they don't make t-shirt with his face on it for adults)
I have always had a dream of being in a musical, it actually made my 100 list about myself. I can't sing or dance so it will never happen. But I never watch a musical where I don't think, "I want to do that someday"
It came out in 1992 and starred Christian Bale who also stared in Batman returns.
This is really a great rental and an excellent soundtrack.
I am also reminded in a movie like this how much I love the special features of movies. The movie is not over to me until I watch the bonus features. I love the making of the movies sometimes more than the movie itself.

Arlington National Cemetery

catching my breath.

It always seems that when family comes in town I get behind on blogging about all the fun stuff we do. (I never even posted about David and Lenessa's Thanksgiving adventures). So here is a little catch up.

we had a great time with Jeff's brother and his family. I think they saw more of the city than many people do who live here their whole lives. We don't let visitors off easy with only seeing one or two things.
Saturday's list consisted of :

• Top of the Washington monument (if you ever do this order tickets early!)
• Natural History Museum. Caroline had fallen asleep and woke up all wet. So she was cruising the museum in a diaper. I was still at the swim meet so Jeff broke one of his rules of shopping in a gift shop and bought a shirt. Then went outside and found a street vendor who was selling shorts. Since Saturday Caroline has worn the outfit everyday and loves it. While my favorite Olive Juice dress stays in the drawer. Who knew I could have just been wardrobe shopping off the D.C. streets.
  

• we had lunch at the National Museum of the Native American. It is our favorite place to eat and it is sad that I know the guy Mark who works there from all our visits.
• we did the Air and Space museum and buying mini metal planes for the girls kept them occupied in the crowded museum. (the most visited Smithsonian on the mall) . I bought one Kitty Hawk and one Space Shuttle. When the lady was ringing me up I asked her how much the space shuttle was, she then asked me which one was the Space Shuttle? kind of funny
• The American History Museum is closed until 2008, so they have the highlights in Air and Space. Dorthy's red shoes, Kermit the frog, a piece of the Nauvoo Temple, this cool quilt and some other highlights (Chanel I thought of you, I hope you got to see this when you came) It is a bible quilt
• This is probably my favorite photo of the day. Scott and Melissa literally running in and out of the National Art Museum. It was not worth taking the 7 kids in for a quick look. And can I just say she had a baby 5 weeks before this. She is amazing!
• we then went home while they explored some more monuments

We had a wonderful time and the cousins just had so much fun together.

On a Caroline note. This girl has completely taught herself how to swim these past few weeks. She is so determined! She has no fear and now is practicing to do the back stroke. There is a lot of sinking involved but she still gives it her best.


in our garden:
my pink hydrangeas are getting ready to be cut. My first cut batch to dry for the year.
we planted two zucchini plants and have had lots to put on the grill.we planted 3 tomato plants and hope we will be in town when they all finally turn red.


we were at Target today and to my surprise found Annie Kate's school list in the school supply section so we got all of her 3rd grade supplies. I love shopping for the supplies and am sad now they encourage you to buy the prepaid packs. This was such a fun thing I remember doing with my mom each year. I loved buying the Red Chief tablets.
last but not least, some of my recent good mail consisted of 4 passports for all the girls in our family. We leave in 3 days for Europe with our all 5 of us! We will be exploring Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We have checked out lots of books, netflixed some movies and even watched the Sound of Music to get the girls excited. So why am I sitting her blogging when I need to be packing.... avoiding responsibility I guess.

Pink Christmas details. sign up before Saturday because after that it will be a few weeks before I can answer emails.

I don't really have a great random act of kindness from this week, but I was going through some old photos from Tennessee and was remind of something our primary class did one Sunday for the piano player.
we gave her piano at church a heart attack. With notes and photos of the kids and a big box of gum.

you would not have to go this overboard. But could you imagine how sweet it would be to just slip a note on the piano before church services for the organ or piano player to let them know how much you appreciate the music each week.

for motivation to get out there and surprise someone check out Jenn's blog

She Photographs on Tuesdays

Challenge - Embrace your Geekness

This challenge was a total challenge for me. Even though I feel that I am computer savvy, I don't really feel like there is much that I know. I kept telling myself today, "Kristi are you kidding yourself?" I feel like I am good a bunch of things but the master at none. That kind of bugs me about myself that I don't think I am more of a computer nerd - I guess the more you know the more you learn you don't know.

Then it hit me what my area would be....

SMUGMUG!

Smugmug! I love, love, love this website. The cute green smiley face is their logo. I have been using their site since January 22, 2003 at 10:28 pm EST. Because of Smugmug all my photos are organized and so easy to find. I can share them or keep them private. I can order prints or keep them digital. I can order a back up disk or let them hang on to them for me.
Whenever I come home from the day, my photo card goes straight into the computer and I download to smugmug before I go to bed. I know my way around their site and seriously use it almost daily. Everyone in my husband's family has a page and we can keep up with each other cross country. When Jill started using smugmug is when the site really opened up to me. She taught me how to make my own categories and organize my photos. Their company is so awesome and anytime I have ever emailed a question I always get an answer back that day. They are down to earth real people!
I recently taught a digital storage class for some 50+ women at my church and I could not stop talking about Smugmug. (I kept promising them I don't work for them and this was not a sales pitch)

So that is where my geekiness is in the computer area.

**How do you store your digital photos?**
**What keeps you from using smugmug?**
**What do you love about Smugmug if you use it?**

book group... not mine.

today Annie Kate went to a all boy's book group. It is not meant to be all boys, it just is. They are reading the Capital Mysteries and then taking a trip downtown to see what they read about. They played a Jeopardy game with trivia about the city as well as the book. She had a blast and this reading thing may just catch on.

Becoming a Butterfly

Get ready

Get Setand...

Fly!

Our experience this year with Annie Kate on the swim team has been so unexpected and such a wonderful joy for our whole family. The little girls love screaming "Go Annie" on Saturdays.

We were not sure if she would make the team or have to be on pre-team and she had had no lessons prior this. So it has been such a blessing to discover one of her talents.swimming back on July 5, 2007

One of the wonderful lessons Annie Kate has learned this season is to try and give it your all. The first two meets she got disqualified for the Butterfly stroke. It is a dang hard stroke. The first time she heard she was not legal to swim it I think she thought she was in trouble with the law.

in the swim huddle for the team cheer

She went the whole season only swimming Back stroke, freestyle and breast stroke and did not swim the butterfly in the meets. Before last Wednesday's meet I asked the coach if she could just try to swim it knowing she would probably get disqualified. He said to go ahead and sign her up. She was so nervous and kept saying, "I don't know how to do it!" She swam and ended up not only getting first place, did not get disqualified but knocked 6 seconds off her original time! Amazing.team cheer - "let me see you get down"

Because of her time she got picked to swim in the Saturdays coaches pick swim meet. She was able to swim, Back, Breast and Butterfly.
She swam her little tail off! She got second place in Back and Breast.

Butterfly was the last stroke of the day and she again was nervous she would get disqualified. She was head to head the whole time with one of the best girls on the team. I was the only one from our family there and standing on the side of the pool screaming my guts out. It was so close! We could not tell who had one, but she had knocked off another 3 seconds off her time!pink power towel

I was doing the ribbons at the meet and when I got the print out that Annie Kate had got first place in what she thought was her worst stroke of the season - I again got teary! I could not believe it!

She had it in her head all season that this was a stroke that she just could not swim. I was so proud of her for just doing it. She had even asked some of the coaches during practice to give her some extra tips.

my favorite photo this season at her first meet.

Then last night we got the list of who was going to divisionals this Saturday. Only two swimmers per team in the county get to swim for each stroke and age. You can imagine our surprise when she was on the list to swim; Breast stroke, Back Stroke and BUTTERFLY!

theme for one their home meets. they put cups in the fence by the pool.

"protect this house"

I can't believe I am saying this but I think I will actually miss the two meets a week and two practices a day at the end of this week! We can't wait for Saturday!